McDonnell Place: birthdays

My baby is two. Waaaaaaaaah!

No, it's not all sad. We've done bottles and sleep-training and food-training five times now and it's quite something to forever close that chapter. Just around the corner is our last round of potty-training and big-girl-bed-training and swim lessons.

But there are always more "firsts" (or "lasts") ahead: shoe-tying, bike-riding, multiplying... college? <deep breaths>

And it's all worth celebrating. SHE is worth celebrating.

There has been nothing easy about having five children.

But there has been nothing shallow in it, either.

Nothing empty (except my bank account,) nothing insignificant (except my roots and uneven fingernails,) and nothing unimportant (except my "to do" list.)

That sounds like a complaint but it's not. Like blowing air into a balloon, anything that seems empty is only so because that energy has been breathed into something far more important, more lasting.

The day my fifth was born the clock stood still. It was Christmastime and a wonderful time to experience the absolutely miraculous event that is childbirth coupled with the inconceivable thought that God became man... was willing to go in a womb and be born to us.

My Christmas baby has been no small gift herself.

She has added so much life to our family.

She's taught Sam to be a big brother.

She's taught the rest of us how soft our own hearts are.... to the point where Evan told me the other day he doesn't need to wait to grow up to know what it feels like to love your own child because he loves Charlotte like that.

She's reminded me to slow down and enjoy the small things again. (I'd forgotten.)

Like many I struggle to keep the things that are important to God important to me.
The "big" things should never swallow the small.

She's taught me as a mirror teaches, too. In her I see my strong will and determination and drivenness, her frustration when she hits her limitations: It's not always cute. <newsflash>

But sometimes can be endearing?

I'm so glad I have pictures and videos to look back on because I won't lie- her babyhood has been a blur!

And she has been SUCH a cute baby! Always silly, always playful, and a little feisty, too.

Very verbal. Very animated. Very demanding.

And already a little bossy. At two.

But after sitting in time out for refusing to tell Sam sorry... she's already learning it's ok to be wrong if you say you were wrong... and she's learning to say "sorry, Sam" and readily waits for the "I forgive you," kiss and hug.

She says and does so many priceless things but I think I'll save them for future posts with the millions of other pictures I hope to get to... today I just keep thinking of the way she hugs me, pats my back and says "mommy's comin'" when I'm in another room or gone.